Anne,
Thanks for your kind words about the essay. Regarding Chaney, he played
characters with a variety of disabilities, but as far as I know the only
deaf character he played was Quasimodo, who had been deafened by the
cathedral bells but did not sign. The common image of him is as the
Phantom of the Opera and Quasimodo, one disfigured, the other multiply
disabled. He played the former rather melodramatically. In fact, his
other roles show that he was an actor of extraordinary subtlety and range.
The sobriquet "The Man of a Thousand Faces" was not a publicist's
hyperbole. When he wasn't playing villains, he often played victims.
Most remarkable, his characters, including the villains, often convey a
sense of deep tragedy and personal agony. Three of his most powerful
roles can be seen in "West of Zanzibar," in which he plays a wheelchair
rider with greater physical accuracy than any nondisabled actor I have
ever seen; "The Unknown," in which he plays an "Armless Wonder" in a
circus; and "He Who Gets Slapped," in which he plays a nondisabled circus
clown. A friend who is a professional interpreter told me as we watched
one of Chaney's films that it was obvious he had grown up among Deaf
people.
Regards,
Paul
Paul K. Longmore
Professor of History
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132
phone: 415-338-6498
TDD: 415-338-6349
fax: 415-338-7539
On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, Anne Cunningham wrote:
> Just to echo Brian's praise of this paper. It is absolutely fascinating .
>
> Paul - a point of interest.(which you may already know) You mention Lon
> Chaney, star of the 1920's played a variety of cripples, the vast majority
> of them villains. Chaney himself was the child of Deaf sign language users
> and he was fluent (and very interested in sign languages internationally).
> His success in silent films has been attributed to his ability to convey
> things non-verbally , due to his upbringing. In his later life Chaney had an
> illness which meant he could not speak, so he once again became a sign
> language user.
>
> anne
>
> ________________End of message______________________
>
> Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
> are now located at:
>
> www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
>
> You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
>
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|